NASCAR driver Ryan Newman reels in his relaxation

Don Coble

Saturday

Jan 23, 2010 at 8:38 PM

DAYTONA BEACH - While he can't forget the stressful nature of his work, especially after having a car land through his windshield last year in one race and flipping on his roof at 200 mph in another, Ryan Newman refuses to let it bother him.

Few jobs are as demanding as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Newman has car owners, sponsors and fans to keep happy. He also has to make split-second decisions at breakneck speeds that could be the difference between winning and crashing, living and dying.

"It's not the stress you have to worry about," Newman said. "It's the way you deal with it. You have to learn to not let it bother you."

At a time when other sports are exploring the demands that come with winning, stock-car drivers prefer their own course of preventive medicine. Some use gallows humor, and others rely on hobbies. All have one thing in common: They have an escape.

Newman goes fishing.

When he's not behind the wheel of his No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet next month at Daytona International Speedway, you can find him standing on the banks of Lake Lloyd in the infield. Every cast seems to relieve a little more of the tension, taking him a little further from the reality of very real dangers that lurk only a few feet away on the racetrack.

"When I'm fishing, I don't think of anything else," he said. "The race car is the last thing on my mind."

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The racing season lasts 10 months, and much of the offseason is spent on making appearances and preparations for the new season. That leaves very little time to find refuge, emotionally and physically, from the perils of the profession.

"If you don't have time, you make time," Newman said. "I build time into my schedule to relax."

Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun took a medical leave this week, and that helped some others to take an inventory of their priorities.

"I used to think this job was the end of all things," Texas basketball coach Rick Barnes told The Associated Press. "I've learned this job is not who I am. It's what I do."

That attitude has been prevalent in NASCAR for decades.

It's why there are so few stress-related problems. In fact, the last active driver to die of heart problems was country singer-turned-racer Marty Robbins in 1982.

Nobody understands pressure more than Dale Earnhardt Jr.

He used to have a pocket full of antacids to cool the burn of constant indigestion. Despite not qualifying for the Chase for the Championship in two of the past three years, the son of racing legend Dale Earnhardt has been voted the most popular driver for the past seven years.

"There's a lot of pressure out there," Junior said, "but you can't let it get to you. You have a lot of obligations to your sponsors. You have a lot of obligations to your fans. It's really tough when you feel like you've let them down. You feel like you can go home and see your family, and they'll understand, but you never really feel like you can repay the fans for being there and being loyal all year long to see you fall short."

The best way Earnhardt Jr. deals with it all is playing online video games.

He uses aliases and plays against unsuspecting people.

There are other reasons NASCAR has steered clear of most stress-related problems.

Because corporate America spends so much money in NASCAR - major sponsorships can cost about $20 million a year - drivers are considered company representatives, so they are required to stay in shape.

The sanctioning body also requires an extensive physical every year to make sure nobody poses a threat on the track.

But without a diversion, most couldn't deal with the level of life-and-death stress that comes with the reality of hard crashes.

David Ragan spends hours every day searching for buys on eBay. Greg Biffle drives dune buggies in the desert. Mark Martin lifts weights, sometimes for as long as four hours a day. Elliott Sadler goes into the woods for days at a time to hunt. Tony Stewart plays with remote-controlled cars. Four-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson is learning to play golf.

Stewart used to be one of the sport's flashpoints. In fact, one of his previous sponsors fined him and ordered anger-management courses after he knocked over a photographer at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Stewart now uses sarcasm to deal with some of his stress at the track.

"These guys [at Stewart-Hass Racing] have helped me mature and grow up," he said. "We're very sarcastic with each other. Darien [Grubb, crew chief] is very calming when he's working with me. There's something about him that calms me down. You suddenly realize it's not always about me, me, me."

Ragan bought an antique fire truck and the squad car used on "The Andy Griffith Show."

Ragan drives both during the week, and it's become a way to deal with pressure.

He also uses a short memory.

"There were a lot of nights that I couldn't fall asleep, and I hated to wake up the next morning because there were weekends that we just did not have any idea of what to do," Ragan said. "I learned from that."

Newman learned to deal with his stress with a fishing pole. He takes one to every race and is ready to get away anytime there's a break in the action - or the fish are biting.

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